informage

Last night was my big Carnaval extravaganza experience. I'd already been through the other traditional Carnaval activities: a samba school Saturday night warm-up; traditional 'bloco' parades by night and by day; and the venerable carioca tradition of leaving the city for a beautiful weekend retreat over carnaval weekend itself (last friday - tuesday). One of the blocos was in the wonderfully characterful neighbourhood of Santa Teresa (pictured above). This was a friendly low-key affair. Well, as low-key as Rio's carnaval celebrations get. It was still pretty busy with the occassional random act of passion. Santa Teresa was a surprise, an authentic Rio worlds apart from the ostentatious and overdeveloped beach areas of Ipanema and Copacabana. The cost is that Santa Teresa is also regarded as one of the least safe areas for us gringos.

Rio gets so hectic with visitors over carnaval weekend that it is common for locals to leave, and we were lucky enough to be offered a wealthy friend's waterside house in a gated community in Angra dos Reis for a few days whilst the family skiied in Italy. We got a ride there in a small yacht from another friend and spent a few days living in the lap of luxury with our own personal cook in a scenic setting. I could write a whole long piece on the contradictions of this experience, and the contrast between this almost sterile luxury and the raw scratchy beauty of our previous trip to Ilha Grande, but this isn't it.

The peak of carnaval took place whilst we were in Angra, and so all we saw of the competitive parades of the various samba schools was on television. I would have been disappointed to have left without any direct experience of the grand spectacle that is carnaval in the Rio sambadrome, and so last night we went late to see part of the champions' parades. It lived up to its spectacular reputation, and watching a continuum of surreal and ornate costumes and unfeasibly pert bodies is surprisingly entrancing. Each parade has a theme, and the Rio Grande school's parade that we watched was all about Brazil beaneath the earth. Floats ranged in theme from the steam trains and ore carriers of Brazil's mining history to a representation of the spirit of nature.

Now I'm helping Shannon package up her apartment for tomorrow's journey back to Cape Town so hopefully later we'll be able to say 'Pad Packed: Beyond the Sambadrome'. Ouch.

My friend and sometime road companion Christian de Sousa - has, in his own low key fashion, published a new work on the web. I am not especially professional nor refined in my vocabulary of photojournalistic criticism, so I'll just say I really like these.

My particular favourite represents that which is so remarkable and simultaneously insightful and creative about Christian's work. Do I sound pretentious enough yet?! No? Shame.

Of course when I get my digital camera I'll be merrily blogging reams of high quality images such as these and Psi's collection from the same New York weekend. I'm waiting until I can afford one small enough to secrete in my lower lip and trigger with a mere pout.

Richard Stallman is one of the most ardent advocates of Free Sofware (also sometimes knows as "open source" although he insists that the two are distinct). He perpetually irritates others in the open source/free software world with his pedantic insistence on his political and ethical principles. Despite this, and the fact that I don't agree with all his positions, I have huge respect for him. I think it is best summed up by the post below by "4of12" posting on Slashdot

I can believe that he does.

I think Richard belongs to the former category of "perceived assholes" rather than the latter.

Trouble in wonderland

"It is lamentable that this happens when we have a record number of tourists" - Cesar Maia, City Mayor.

Fortunately I was busy enjoying paradise at the time. Incidentally a week ago I visited Cidade de Deus, the slum depicted in the eponymous film. Although I didn't see any heavily armed drug traffickers the place felt just a touch more intimdating and broody that the South African townships I know.

We've just returned from a brief sojourn on the tropical island paradise of Ilha Grande - from Rio just a couple of hours by bus and another two by boat. We were myself, Shannon, Catherina and Tomas and on both Monday and Tuesday at midday we lived up to the title. Something about us northerners I guess, showing a complete lack of respect for the full force of the tropical sun.

You know this quiz seems remarkably insightful:

Which OS are You?

CLANCY: Gore Vidal, you've suggested that corporate greed is the driving force behind this war on terror going back even before September 11. This smacks of a conspiracy theory, no?

GORE VIDAL, AUTHOR: I know that we're all supposed to chuckle and slap our thighs at the word "conspiracy theory" because it means we believe in flying saucers.

The world is full of conspiracies. What, after all, is a political party but a conspiracy to get money and power?

Yesterday we were sitting having lunch outside Cafe Felice, which incidentally has the best sorvete - ice cream - in Rio. My personal favourite flavour is Cinnamon and Apple - I'd give you the portuguese but I don't recall. "We" is myself and my favourite person Shannon. The food was great. All in all the scenario would have been wonderful if not for the deafening sound and toxic emissions of the garbage truck parked across the street. The silver lining was that this was the first time I'd eaten out in Ipanema and not been able to hear "The Girl from Ipanema". Because of the garbage truck, not the venue's music policy I might add.

In other news a 'carioca' woman was arrested for driving without a crash-helmet. Fair enough you might think, except that she was driving a car.

Photos of my last trip here.

Happily timguest.net is back up again with lots of new fun content.

Not so happily the site appears to have been hijacked by Tim's less friendly alter ego, the onetime "Puffy G".

We can only hope that usual service will be restored soon, and I will no longer feel impelled to leave comments making use of the word 'Bitch'.

Pretty clock

Useful clocks

(Several deadline looms and I'd rather go out and get drunk in Rio with Shannon, so that's about all I'm mustering today)